maxim_e

[redstonedust]

the problem with movie remakes is that they always remake something that was already good, meaning at worst you ruin it and at best your remake is largely redundant. to make a truly good remake you need to start with source material that is absolute dogwater. ignore the pull of nostalgia. redeem the sins of moviemaking past.

[stabbydragon]

"Love/sex is what makes us human" Wrong. It's the obsession with rectangles. look around you and count the number of rectangles you see.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#looked up and thought ‘that can’t be hard’#and then my eyes widened with horror as I realized the sheer number of rectangles everywhere#I’m . I’m horrified

It's a good shape!

[animentality]

[crunchymayo]

Lord, grant me the strength to throw away this box that i'll never use, the courage to throw away this box that i'll never use, and the wisdom to throw away this box that i'll never use

[heavensenthousepet]

you learn something new everyday. unless you're a historian. then you learn something old

[melonisopod]

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[hypokeimena]

#'this is present in the text' is often a good first step #but those second and third ones (naming it; describing its function) are vital (via @elucubrare)

[sandmandaddy69]

[animate-mush]

The thing about the whole AD vs CE vs whether it's all just cosmetic discourse is that it totally ignores where this numbering system comes from. We should just call it what it is: Bede notation.

It was invented by one person for a specific purpose - to have a universalizable way of establishing historical dates, rather than having to deal with dynastically based date systems. And it was a really good idea. This is not surprising, since Bede is basically the father of Historiography. He also is the guy who gave us the notion of Primary Sources. Bede is amazing.

When a guy revolutionizes the entire way calendaring is done, he has the right to set his zero point wherever he pleases.

People have pointed out that one problem with CE notation is that it presents itself as neutral when it is exactly the same system as AD. What exactly is "common" about this era? The zero point doesn't become neutral just by effacing its source.

(Also BCE is nonsense. Just use negative numbers)

It makes sense for scholarly tradition to not want to be tied to a specific religion. But scholarly tradition is very enthusiastic about being tied to earlier scholarly tradition. The convention of AD was established by a scholar for a scholarly purpose. We know his name. We know what he was doing, and why, and how. And he was doing it better than anybody else. That is worth honoring.

Rather than pretending that it's a neutral system, acknowledge that it's not. It's not some naturally occurring "common era," it's the system developed by Bede, centered around dates that were important to him personally (but which he intended to be universally applicable).

Like we should be honest about the facts that (a) an awful lot of people have been measuring dates this way for nearly 1400 years and changing it in a non-cosmetic way would involve a lot of seriously obnoxious bookkeeping, and (b) the zero is where it is because that's where the guy who invented the system decided to put it. "Anno Domini" is meaningless to people who aren't into that particular Dominus, and "Common Era" is meaningless period (and imparts a false appearance of neutrality). Pinning it to its creator, though, is already scholarly convention and is objective. It may or may not be the year of Our Lord, and it certainly isn't Common (whatever that means) but it is unarguably the schema developed by Bede, for better or for worse. So unless we're actually going to rebuild it from scratch, we may as well call it that. And even if we do rebuild it from scratch, we should still call it that. Because that is what it is.

[animate-mush]

Reblogging in honor of the feast of St. Bede today.

I have been informed that Bede notation may in fact have been first devised by Dionysus the Humble of Scythia to calculate the date of Easter more accurately. But my broader point stands.

Bede, yo.

[cottoncandylesbo]

the thermostat app i was forced to download due to my apartment complex installing "smart" thermostats just asked me to rate it based on how likely i was to recommend it to a friend. so i called my friend and told her she should download the app. she asked me why. i said it can make things hotter or colder, depending. she said that was stupid. i told her sorry and that she was right.

she did download the app, though she could not use it because she does not have the kind of thermostat it requires. she rated it two stars. i asked why two and she said she liked the colors.

[noosferik]

I wish zeppelins were still a widely available means of transport, I'd love to travel the world on an amazing dirigible circuit

[polyporewhoresstuff]

Go to your mother fucking local museums! Need something to do that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? Go to a museum! Not sure where you should go for a date? Go to a museum! Got family/friends/coworkers/acquaintances/children that you need to entertain? Go to a fucking museum!

Google museums near you, and you might be shocked to see how many hidden gems you have been surrounded by. You will definitely have your big three (science, history, & art) which are awesome, but you will also see museums for stuff you have never thought of. I've been to lace museums, water fowl museums, craft museums, and so many more. They were always there, but I would have never found them if I didn't seek them out.

Museums are often free, sometimes have fun events, and help spread knowledge to the general public. We need to support them. Plus, you might learn a thing or two.

[christiangeistdorfer]

STIRLING MOSS shaking his fist at JEAN BEHRA during the 1959 MONACO GRAND PRIX || photo from Jack Brabham’s Motor Racing Book

[deutsche-bahn]

Ich liebe alte Werbung aus den 50ern und 60ern. Weniger wegen dem ungezügelten Sexismus, sondern weil Werbeslogans quasi noch nicht erfunden worden waren? Zumindest war es im deutschen Sprachraum noch üblich, aufs Werbeplakat erstmal einen ganzen Fließtext zu packen.

Vielleicht daydreame ich auch nur von einer Welt in der man Werbung einfacher ignorieren kann, indem man zB die fucking zwei Absätze in Schriftgröße 12 auf dem Plakat da drüben nicht liest. Asserting dominance over some marketing department by only looking at the pretty pictures

[deutsche-bahn]

Das großartige an Lokalgeschichte ist, dass dort manchmal die kleinen Details erwähnt werden die bei umfassenderen Texten wegfallen würden. Wie komme ich darauf, fragt ihr jetzt bestimmt hochinteressiert weil Lokalgeschichte spannend ist und nicht das most Rentner-coded Interesse jenseits von Schrebergärten?

Ohne die letzten zwei Bücher über Düsseldorf 1933-1945 hätte ich nicht erfahren dass die örtlichen NS-Kommandanten teilweise versuchten, mit dem fucking Fahrrad zu fliehen als die Stadt von den Amerikanern eingenommen wurde. Das war so erfolglos und lächerlich wie man erwarten würde, which is great, weil jeder Tag ein guter Tag ist um mit dem Finger auf Nazis zu zeigen und sie auszulachen

[schwarmverirrungen]

Phänomenales Zeugma von der Rentnerin in diesem Zug (zu ihren Freundinnen): So, jetzt nehmt Platz und Vernunft an

[sandmandaddy69]

[all-action-all-picture]

F1 News Vol. 2 No. 7 dated 4 May 1993. The cover features Alain Prost in the Canon Williams Renault FW15C. It featured one of the great sponsor designs with the 'cutaway' Sega cartoon legs and feet.

There is another Sega/Williams connection with the rumour being that it is Prost's 1993 team-mate Damon Hill's eyes that feature on a trackside billboard in the 1994 arcade and console game Daytona. There is a strong resemblance but its hard to say for sure.